On the Putato Disease. 
379 
done now, as the skin of the diseased ones had peeled up. The 
best were then put into a cool shed, lightly covered up with straw ; 
tile others were packed in ridges, covered over with dry mould, 
and then well thatched. They all kept well, but those in the 
shed the best. I had some packed wilh lime and others with 
ashes, but they were no better than those without any, which kept 
as well as usual, not more than two pecks of bad being found in a 
ton late this spring. 
Certainly the best way, and I believe the most economical in 
the end, is to put potatoes into a house constructed on purpose for 
them. They are then accessible at all times, and the pickers 
(usually women) need not be exposed to all kinds of weather in 
the winter. A house upon the following plan, the owner informed 
me, had fully answered his expectations for the last fifteen years, 
durhng which time lie had not had a peck frozen in it. It is 
constructed in the following manner: — Posts are fixed in a row in 
the ground, about 3 feet apart, 6 feet G inches out of the ground, 
to support a plate. The same is done on the opposite side, about 
9 feet wide. Tie-beams are then fixed across (about 6 feet apart) 
from plate to plate ; a doorway is framed at each end, and oiie in 
the middle. The walls are then built up outside the posts with 
turf and strong loam or clay, 3 feet thick at bottom, closely 
rammed and sloping to about '1 feet thick at top; rod-hurdles are 
then placed across the tie-beams, and on these bad hay or old 
litter of any kind is built up like the roof of a hay-rick ; and when 
properly settled, it is well thatched over nearly down to the 
ground. The doors are blocked up during hard weather with 
litter. 
As any rough posts loill do, if sound, the cost is very moderate. 
Tliis house is 140 feet by 9 feet, inside width. Probably one or 
two trunks, like water-spouts, passed through the roof, wilh caps to 
close down, miaht be useful as ventilators in a house of this size; 
and similar trunks perforated would, I doubt not, be of advantage if 
inserted in all large heaps of potatoes, especially if wet, whether in 
pits or houses. 
VOL. VII. 
Potato lioiisc. 100 feet, 9 feet insiJe « 
